Asahi stares at the monster before him, this creature is solely responsible from turning what should have been the easy suppression of a demonic incursion into a phyrric victory at best, his allies slowly fan out to cover a larger area. The monster ignores them for now, and reaches into her bag, Larielle thinks of shooting her, but with that helmet she doubts she could deal significant damage. Nalia is magically appraising the environment, looking for any traps on her teammates, she doesn't find any, which only worries her more. Xyrashi has already disappeared from view, no doubt looking for her moment to strike. Tolbert takes point, if he can't take a hit from that monster, no one can. The team moves as one, prepared for anything the mermaid might throw at them.
Right up until she grabs a blood covered gem from her bag, and holds it close to her helmet.
"Get to the captain, inform Cathy, and take the barrel labeled special provisions. My gift to you, make sure to eat it all." The monster launches the gem in the direction of the camp using her blood magic, the stream of blood leaves a flare-like effect.
Xyrashi launches out of the foliage, aiming to strike at the monster as she's distracted, Esstrey strikes at the rogue, easily identifying where she was. Larielle uses the opening to pin a few arrows in the spine of the mermaid, while Tolbert charges, unstoppable force meeting moveable object. Esstrey back off from the charging dwarf, wanting nothing to do with that bundle of metal. She rips moisture from the nearby trees, and slips the dwarf on it. Before she can capitalize on the metal boulder rolling over, Asahi comes from behind him and swings wide, Esstrey barely dodges the swing, only to get hit by a bolt of lightning fired from Nalia, the lightning courses through her nerves as the veins refuse its entry. The arrows embedded in her spine detonate as they react to the lightning, some kind of alchemical concoction having been hidden in them. Xyrashi strikes from the shadows again, seeing an opening as the monsters lets out a scream of pain while being electrocuted, the heft of a crossbow meets her as Esstrey pushes her blood to move her body instead, crushing a few ribs on the wolfgirl. She gets launched back to her team limp, and a smile grows on Esstrey's lips, she can win this, she can outlast.
Then a bright light envelops Xyrashi, a master's usage of light and life magic. A tall woman wearing a nun's habit is unveiled from invisibility at that moment, having been cautiously hiding from combat until she was needed. Xyrashi gets back up in a gasp, as her ribs re-locate to make room for the reversion of the crushing of the lungs. Xyrashi doesn't look well, but she's moving again.
"Thanks Fadunia, I owe you a quality trophy after this." A healer, and a good one too, has revealed herself as an ace in the hole. Esstrey swallows nervously, perhaps she won't be outlasting, not today.
The offensives continue, Tolbert blocks Esstrey, while Asahi covers him. Everytime Esstrey tries to counterattack she gets hit with magic, every opening is reward with alchemically enhanced arrows, while every time Esstrey punishes her attackers they are healed by Fadunia. Even Esstrey's tough body can't stand under the onslaught of elements and attacks, at this point the only thing keeping her in one piece is pure magic. She gets colder as death is near, she won't survive the next offensive.
"You will disappear!" Asahi moves on Esstrey, clearly knowing her imminent demise as well.
"BUT I WILL NEVER FALL!" Esstrey charges, determined to burn bright. Tolbert moves to block, and is rewards by a head on collision with Esstrey's crossbow. Nothing that deals permanent damage, but certainly enough to cause a concussion. Asahi slashes at Esstrey, and his slash strikes true. It bisects Esstrey, but rather than back off from the damage she ignores the attack, keeping her midriff attached to herself the magical way. A shovel finds its way to Asahi's hands while he's still recovering from his attack, and chops his hands clean off. Nothing lethal with Fadunia nearby or their massive stock of potions, but enough to make him back off instead. Esstrey fires her crossbow between the trees, neatly pinning Larielle to a tree as the bolt goes through her shoulder. Before Esstrey can move on the backline, she gets carved into her tail by Xyrashi, who holds on to her rear tight, counting on the fact that the massive mermaid should have trouble reaching so low. Or at least, she wouldn't be able to if she wasn't currently a bisected blood mage, turning her upper body one-eighty degrees Xyrashi gets a whole second to regret the life choices that brought her there. Esstrey headbutts the girl with the full force of her helmet, the wolfgirls face has been turned unrecognizable as an imprint of the Altyn helmet now exists where her face used to be.
"I'M SO CLOSE TO THE EDGE!" Tolbert recovered from his concussion, and a feeling of horror overcomes the stoic dwarf for a moment. He resists the urge to flee, and stands between the one thing that would recover them. Esstrey slams into him with the crossbow, and his shield buckles. She slams again, and the shield falls. Just as she aims to crush his helmet next, Asahi stands in front of her fully recovered again, and she sees that the mage somehow brought everyone over to the nun quickly for healing. A reforming frontline, and Esstrey is running on fumes.
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"Katerina! I offer you an accord! Work with me, fight with me, share this blood with me. I offer you symbiosis, be a parasite no more, and together we will reach greatness as comrades!" Katerina responds, joining the fight and lifting a literal burden off Esstrey's back in the form of supporting the annihilated remnants of her spine more actively.
[A facade breaks under pressure! [High-ranking Mermaid] Esstrey is revealed to be [Esstrey, Extradimensional Horror]!]
[Weak children weep at night, and strong men shudder on their walls! [The Nightmare] has arrived on [Brynya] to bring fear to all!]
Name: Esstrey, Extradimensional Horror Race: Mazurian Royal Mermaid Paragon Terrifying Presence Ballistic Perfection Extradimensional Symbiote Expert Aqua Mage Expert Blood Mage
A small boost of strength from [The Central Governor], and a cartload of future problems to go with it. The party recoils in fear for a second, before light coming from Fadunia and Nalia dispels the unnatural fear. It bought a mere second, but that second was worth its weight in gold, as the real threat takes a combat position now. Katerina's profane legs emerge from Esstrey's back, and slashes in front of her. The air shimmers and fragments, while attacks launched seem to utterly disintegrate, pieces of mana and arrows being sent to extradimensional space. Asahi tries to move around the broken air, but Katerina slashes again, blocking him off. In a small gap between destroyed space, Nalia manages to cast a spell, and hits Esstrey's crossbow with it. The crossbow suddenly becomes many times heavier, and Esstrey is forced to drop it. The moment of confusion is enough for Tolbert to force Esstrey away from her boxed position of destroyed space, Nalia casts the spell again while aiming for the helmet, seeking to break the monster's neck. Esstrey manages to take off the helmet just in time, and her face is properly revealed to the party.
Beneath the helmet is no extradimensional horror, merely a tired woman doing her best to live with her ideals. There might have been beauty beneath that helmet once, now is merely the face of someone thoroughly beaten and defeated. Asahi points his sword at Esstrey, wordlessly demanding a surrender.
"I didn't hear no bell." Esstrey spits out one of her teeth into the ground, not hard considering she's falling apart as is. Tolbert and Nalia were both the wariest and most ready to attack at the refusal, Nalia launches another heavy metal spell, while Tolbert charges to claim his trophy. Esstrey charges to meet Tolbert, and as the spell collides with her shovel she strikes it downward on the dwarf, the shovel goes through the metal, but Esstrey's aim is sloppy this far into the fight. Instead of cleaving into his skull, she only manages to remove the right side of the dwarf's body. The dwarf screams as Esstrey looks around drunkenly, all of her equipment is gone, her clothes are completely shredded, and most of her is splattered about the place, yet she doesn't fall.
Suddenly, Tolbert's half-body gets slapped aside by a thick whip of metal, Fadunia is already on the dwarf, who looks too out of it to scream anymore. A massive slime made of adamantine emerges from around Esstrey, who is no longer registering anything happening, she can currently only think of fighting the enemies in front of her. The [Adamantine Slime] pushes Asahi back, and before Nalia can get a spell to support him, she gets counterspelled by a thing erupting from a portal. A being of tar eyes and mouths in the crude shape of a maid.
"Retreat! We are too late!" Asahi might not have been able to predict this outcome, but it doesn't take an oracle to know the tides have turned against them.
Cathy allows the Hero's party to retreat as she rushes to Esstrey's side, who is currently leaking a lot of blood for a blood mage. Sofia simply makes some shapes as she tests her new metal body, she had been forced to manipulate the iron in blood to act like a blood slime the entire time, so being able to use metal feels like she just took off some major weights.